T minus three sleeps

We’re nearly there. Just a few days and sleepless nights to go until ‘Bloodrush’ is released on Wednesday and we have the launch gig at the Glad Cafe in Glasgow. At the time of writing there are a few tickets left, but not many, so it looks like we’ll have a good crowd.

The highlight of last week was spending 3 hours in the rehearsal studio with James Mackay (who played guitar on the recording) and Dan Brown (who plays keyboards). To try to put this into context… I’m one of only two people I’ve ever met who failed Grade 1 piano. I was also demoted in the school orchestra from 2nd to 3rd trombones (to be fair, I was deliberately, as opposed to accidentally, awful because I wanted to stop both sets of lessons). James and Dan are recent graduates of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s prestigious jazz programme. So, it’s a bit like having Messi and Ronaldo join your pub 5-aside team. Really, it was a glorious thing to arrange the songs with them, and to hear how their playing made the songs take flight. It gave me a lot of confidence to hear that; James and Dan’s playing is going to be my acoustic security blanket for Wednesday night.

I am really, really looking forward to playing the songs for a live audience. Of course, there are plenty of nerves too. Gig anxiety dreams are a new genre for me; but they’re not so different from their academic cousins (the lecture room that you cant’ find; when you're called to the podium to deliver a talk you didn’t know about and haven’t prepared… you know the kind of thing). I’m just going to try and focus on seeing it as the party that it is; I’m playing some songs for some friends who are as happy as I am that something good is happening.

But before that, today indeed, I have a guest slot in the very first ‘Homebird Sessions’ event at the Lanternhouse in Cumbernauld Theatre. The sessions were set-up by my friend Elaine Lennon as a way of keeping music-makers and music-lovers connected during lockdown. This is the launch of an in-person series of events featuring singer-songwriters. Her special guest today is the brilliant Yvonne Lyon; and I have a slot as the first ‘Showcase Artist’ (a polite way of saying unknown!) between their sets to talk about and sing Bloodrush. I hope it’ll be a gentle introduction to the stage!

If you’re local and want to come along today, you can find out more here: https://www.elainelennon.com/the-homebird-sessions

And if you want to grab one of the remaining tickets for Wednesday night, look here: https://www.thegladcafe.co.uk/events/2021-10-06-fergus-mcneill-plus-saskia-griffiths-moore-the-glad-cafe

Hope to see you there.